Scratchpad 6 Wiki:Manual of Style
This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles on this wiki. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles. General *Linking to other pages should usually be limited to the first occurrence of the word or phrase in an article, unless if the page is very long, or the article is mentioned repeatedly in a table. *Please avoid writing abbreviations of game titles (e.g. use Kingdom Rush instead of KR) within articles. *Write articles in third person ("the player" instead of "you"); this does not apply to guides and strategies. *The first instance of an article's subject should be written in bold. *"See also" and "External links" sections in articles should contain a bulleted list of all the links in it, even if there is only one link. *This Wiki uses English in every article, so please use English, and not any other language, when editing pages. Even if you aren't very good at English, try your best to put your ideas in English on the page when editing. Other people can fix any grammar errors. **This Wiki specifically uses American-English, so please ensure all spellings are correct for this language. (e.g. color instead of colour) *Please write in a neutral and objective point-of-view. Don't mention yourself in articles or deliberately give your personal opinion on things. What not to include To help keep the wiki free of spam and other unnecessary items, there are a few things you should not include in your edits or when creating an article, but you are free to include them in your user page. That includes: *Personal things where you want feedback from other users (e.g. games that you are making). *Any non-canon information (things not actually in the games, just thought up by people) or speculation about games. This detracts from factual information and could potentially mislead readers. *Fan fiction or any other stories that involve you as part of the game universe. *Suggestions and ideas for games. *Any information about yourself, as you already have your user page. *Questions about anything. Please leave any questions you may have on an appropriate talk page. Naming of pages *Article titles should be the full and official name of the subject, following all capitalization and punctuations as found in the games/other primary sources. Article titles should also be singular, except for pages that are a list of things. *Category names should be in plural. Article layout One of the most important parts of wiki editing is how to structure an article. The structure is a powerful thing: it dictates what information the reader reads and when he or she reads it. It can influence what people contribute, where it goes, and how it might be written. Structure has the power to inform or confuse the same way good or bad writing does. Keep a well-structured article, and you're more likely to have a high quality one. Organize sections in an article in a hierarchical structure like you would an outline. Keep it logical, but feel free to forsake strict logic for readability. Wherever possible, try to have an introduction for each section. Just like the article as a whole, the section should start with an introduction and then have its subsections below it. Try using a shallow structure rather than a deep one. Too many nested sections usually lead to a confusing or unreadable article. Above all, keep your layout consistent. Don't throw your reader a curve ball too often. The following sections will offer some good advice on keeping your articles clean, consistent, and clear. Lead section Unless an article is very short, it should start with an introductory lead section, before the first subheading. The lead should not be explicitly entitled Introduction or any equivalent header. The table of contents, if displayed, appears after the lead section and before the first subheading. The lead should be capable of standing alone as a concise overview of the article, establishing context, and explaining why the subject is interesting or notable. It should be between one or two paragraphs long, and should be written in a clear and accessible style so that the reader is encouraged to read the rest of the article. If possible, make the title the subject of the first sentence of the article. For example, write The Dark Tower is the final level in Kingdom Rush. The first time the article mentions the title, put it in bold using three apostrophes — article title produces article title. Avoid other uses of bold in the first sentence, except for alternative titles of an article. Table of contents A table of contents will automatically appear in articles with a minimum of four headings (unless forced by the below options). By default, this will be left-aligned above the first section heading. * To the force a TOC position (left-aligned): __TOC__ * To completely remove the TOC from a page: The table of contents can be right-aligned - but only if it is very long (over 15 entries) and an information box is not occupying the top-right corner of the article (rare exceptions exist). * Right-aligned TOC that floats next to text: Section headings Use the (two equal signs) style markup for main headings, equivalent to . Do not use a single =. This is because a single = creates an heading which is already used by the page header and would be bad coding. Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading and leave all of the other letters in lowercase. Use "Monster formations", not "Monster Formations". Note that this is different from most section title rules you'll encounter elsewhere. Always keep headings short and simple. Headings are guidelines to your page's structure and should inform the reader rather than confuse. To keep it short, avoid unnecessary words or redundancy in headings, i.e. avoid a, an, and the, pronouns, repeating the article title, and so on. Images Images make an article memorable and pretty. They can speak where words fail. At the same time, misplaced or untidy images can detract from an article. When choosing images, keep in mind placement, size, and the appropriateness of the image to the section. Let images flow with the text instead of breaking it up. Large images such as screenshots should use the "thumb" (example: ) option which displays large images as thumbnails. Images should generally be right aligned to enhance readability by allowing a smooth flow of text down the left margin - the "thumb" option does this by default. If an infobox is not being used in an article, a right aligned picture in the lead section is encouraged. Image conventions *Generally, all images should be PNGs. However, Photoshop artwork should be JPGs. *Sprites should be animated GIFs if they have a constant animation. *The images for sprites should have transparent backgrounds and no borders. *Images should be updated so their most recent forms are shown. For example, if the image of a potion is changed in a remake of a game, the new image should be uploaded and displayed over the old one. *Images should be of high quality. Low quality images should be replaced as soon as a HQ version is available. Galleries When an article has many images, or can be improved by having more, and having inline images be detract from the readability of an articles, the use of a section is encouraged. Image:Example.jpg|Caption Image:Example.jpg|Caption Tables * Tables can be used for listing data that changes over a number of stages. Tables should be kept as clear and easy to read as possible. * Overcrowding fields will lots of data can result in a confusing and difficult to understand table. * Linking to other pages should usually be limited to the first occurrence of the word or phrase in an article, unless if the page is very long, or the article is mentioned repeatedly in a table (such as enemy waves). * All tables are required to be in article table, except for wave composition, which should be done in wiki table. Article table helps keep information easier to read. See also, references, external links, and navigational tables (default) The last sections, if they exist, should always be "See also", followed by "References", followed by "External links". In the case of "See also", use bullets to list the internal links. Under the references section should be placed . Finally, in the external links should be all external links. Categories Categories should be added to the end of an article - a full list can be found on . They take the form Category:Categoryname. All articles should be accessible starting from Category:Browse, via subcategories. Disambiguation A disambiguation line is sometimes put at the beginning of an article to link to another article with the same or similar title. The line should be italicized and indented once. Most usually contain the phrase, "Were you looking for X?" For example: : Were you looking for "The Battle of Terrafield", an official novel? Quotations Format a long quote (over four lines) as an italicized block quotation, which will be indented from both margins. Do not enclose the block quote in quotation marks. To format a block quotation, do not use the wiki indentation mark ":" — instead, use the HTML element. Grammar Use correct spelling and grammar when editing articles, as if you are writing a school paper. Capitalization Titles start with a capital letter when used as a title (followed by a name). When used generically, they should be in lower case: "Furion is a powerful lord." The correct formal name of an office is treated as a proper noun. Classes should only be capitalized when used as a proper noun, i.e. as someone's name. ("Warlock, go be evil" versus "That warlock is quite evil.") Spacing There should be a space between a comma, full stop (period), colon, semicolon, question mark, or exclamation point, and the next word. ;Incorrect :Bosses are special enemies encountered at the ends of certain levels.They are superior to the normal enemies,and letting a boss leak loses the game.The bosses in the game are The Juggernaut,J.T.,Vez'nan,Sarelgaz and Gul'Thak. ;Correct :Bosses are special enemies encountered at the ends of certain levels. They are superior to the normal enemies, and letting a boss leak loses the game. The bosses in the game are The Juggernaut, J.T., Vez'nan, Sarelgaz and Gul'Thak. Writing : “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs” -- Stephen King We now come to the meat of an article: the words themselves. When you're editing wikis, you're both academic and artist. You have to be accurate, but you also have to be interesting. Neither one can dominate; you have to skillfully balance both. Keep your writing concise. Don't use two words where one will do. Keeping your writing simple will make it easy to understand and easy to expand on. Use complete sentences whenever possible. When you write, use grammar as a toolbox: know the rules, but only break them on purpose. Check your spelling and grammar. Do not use 'u' in place of 'you' or '2' in place of 'to'. Write the way you would for a class paper or a newspaper article. Keep all of the topics you cover within the scope of the article. What that means is, you don't need to give a detailed history of humans on the page about Winston Churchill. Consider the article's title as your point of origin and write from that perspective. Make use of the wiki's ability to link to more detailed articles or external sources for more information. Write from an impersonal perspective.' Do not use "I." For example, do not write, "Ruins of Acaroth is the second bonus level in the game. However, I think he is very easy to beat with the correct strategy." Avoid drawing attention to the author (yourself) as much as possible. Do not use second-person pronouns except in strategies. (added) Please do not use 'you' or bring up questions to the reader (use 'the player' instead). However, writing strategies like this sounds rather weird, so please do use second-person pronouns there. Be bold. If you know something is wrong, correct it. If you think you could word something better, write it. If an article has a glaring deficiency, fill it. Even if your first attempt isn't golden, you can fix it later or someone else will come along and fix it for you. Don't be afraid to screw up. Conclusion Every article can be improved (even this one). Following these guidelines will not ensure a perfect article the first time, but it will give the article a stronger skeleton. It's ultimately your job as an editor to put meat on it. Editing Guidelines